1. Field of Invention
At this first patent this invention relates to the removal of residue and burning material from a muzzle loading, black powder gun and the lubricating of the bore as well as the loading of the gun after each shot in order to keep the gun shooting a straight and smooth shot. There is also interest in adapting the boreswipe for cleaning tubing, large and small, modern day weapon barrels including but not limited to revolvers, rifles, shotguns, and larger military weapons. Also, it could be used in the field of science and medical equipment.
2. Description of Prior Art
Muzzleloaders are any firearms into which the bullet is loaded from the muzzle of the gun. It could be anything from a pistol to a cannon, but in our modern times it generally refers to black powder small arms.
The shooter puts in gunpowder (a pre-measured pellet, loose powder or a pre-measured bag), adds wadding (soft material like cloth), and the projectile (usually a solid lead ball). Because the items are generally tight fitting, and the barrel is long, a tool called a ramrod is used to push the items down.
Muzzleloaders must be cleaned each time, or at least every several shots, to remove the burning material left in the barrel, and the residue left from black powder. This residue reduces the interior bore diameter of the barrel causing subsequent powder pressures to increase. Without removing at least some of this residue, each shot becomes increasingly harder to load, and less accurate to shoot. To correct this build-up muzzleloaders must wipe the inside of the bore after no more than 5 shots. If this is not done it will become impossible to drive the ball down the barrel completely without badly deforming the soft lead creating a dangerous condition in which the barrel may burst.
One of the earliest muzzle loading guns was developed in the 15th century. It was a small hand cannon with a touch hole for ignition. It was unsteady, unreliable, and had to be propped on something to shoot it. It was only effective for about 30 yards. The first muzzle loader improvement was the invention of the flash pan—a cup by the touch hole that could be more easily ignited. Unfortunately, it suffered from any moisture and bad weather. The next step in muzzle loading evolution was the wheel lock, a device something like a modern lighter with a flint pressed against a rough wheel to create sparks and ignite the gunpowder. It worked better but was expensive to make. Eventually technology arrived at the flintlock, where the striking surface and flash pan cover were all one piece. This made the mechanism simpler and less expensive to produce. It also allowed more creative gun designs that could be made small enough to conceal. This design was the basis for the Brown Bess Flintlock in the early 1700's, a gun that was instrumental in settling the new frontier of America. They were quite accurate—to about 80 yards. The design also let a practiced shooter load and fire up to three rounds per minute.
The percussion cap ignition system was developed in 1805 and eliminated any exposed powder and the flash pan. The explosive cap was placed on top of a small tube that allowed the flames from the exploding fulminate of mercury to enter the barrel and ignite the powder that propelled the bullet. This mechanism was a major advance in reliability and was virtually immune to moisture unless water got into the barrel. The design was also the basis for developing revolvers.
All of the inventions to this date, to improve the performance and reliability of the muzzleloader have centered on the ignition mechanism, the powder, and the barrel. While much forward progress has been made, no one has addressed the problem of cleaning and lubing the bore between shots as needed for greater accuracy. No one has made any significant change in the ramrod.
Up to now the ramrods have been made out of a variety of materials including wood, solid brass, steel, glass-reinforced polymer and aluminum—for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,406; U.S. Pat. No. 480,746, U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,406, and U.S. Pat. No. 480,746. None have been made with a hollow center for the use of holding a lube that will lubricate the inside of the bore when loading thus keeping the bore clear of built up residue and lubricating the it so that the ball will sided into the bore easily.
An avid hunter and shooter with an engineering and machinist background, Gerald (Jerry) Mays attempted to solve the problem of wiping and lubing the bore of a muzzle loader at the same time it was being loaded, for more uniform accuracy of each shot, in a simplified, easy to use, and cleaner manner.
In the fall of 2004, Jerry rough sketched a proposed ramrod with an internal lubricant. He located some brass tubing and built a prototype. One of the first attempts used the hollow shaft from an arrow for the ramrod. Several were made and used by friends for some informal evaluation. Refinements in the materials used, such as a stiffer rod, improved bushings, and the development of lubricant by his sister, Judith Somers, led Jerry to file for a Provisional Patent: U.S. Provisional Patent No. 60/686,997